The IBM TS7600 ProtecTIER Deduplication solution meets the disk-based data protection needs of the enterprise data center while enabling significant infrastructure cost reductions. The solution offers high-performance inline data deduplication, optional two-node clustering, and up to 1 petabyte (PB) of physical storage capacity per system. Combined with IBM storage, the ProtecTIER Gateway solution provides an optimal disk-based target for backup and archive data.

The IBM TS7600 ProtecTIER Deduplication solution can scale to meet the needs of small businesses to an enterprise-class data protection platform. It can quickly and safely protect business information while reducing the amount of space that is required for storage. Customers can experience up to 25:1 storage capacity reduction.

Deploying this solution can help organizations more efficiently protect their corporate data on disk-based storage while helping them manage the exponential growth of new data through reduction or elimination of duplicate data in their backups.

The TS7600 solution is designed to perform the following tasks:

The TS7600 ProtecTIER solution is available as the TS7650G Deduplication Gateway or the TS7620 Deduplication Appliance Express. Virtual Tape Library (VTL) and File System Interface (FSI) interfaces are available for virtualization of tape or emulation of CIFS/NFS file systems.

The following features are provided under ProtecTIER V3.4:

The latest TS7650G DD6 gateway offers an 80% reduced rack hardware footprint over the previous DD5 gateway model, as shown in Figure 14-1.

This chapter includes the following topics:

The following interfaces are available under ProtecTIER V3.4:

The IBM ProtecTIER Virtual Tape service emulates traditional tape libraries. By using this configuration, you can perform disk backups without replacing your entire backup environment. Your existing backup application can access virtual libraries to move virtual cartridges between virtual slots and virtual drives. The backup application perceives that the data is being stored on cartridges while ProtecTIER stores data on a deduplicated disk repository on the storage fabric.

The ProtecTIER FSI emulates Microsoft Windows file system behavior and presents a virtualized hierarchy of file systems, directories, and files to Windows CIFS clients. Clients can perform all Microsoft Windows file system operations on the emulated file system content. The ProtecTIER FSI interface is intended to be used for backup and restore of data sets by using a backup application. It is single-node only, and the FSI cannot be deployed on dual-node clusters. You cannot have CIFS and NFS connectivity on the same ProtecTIER FSI node.

IBM offers two ProtecTIER virtualization solutions: The TS7650G Deduplication Gateway and the TS7620 Deduplication Appliance Express.

The latest TS7650G gateway model is the 3958 DD6, which is a two-rack unit device. It does not include a disk storage repository, which allows you to choose from various supported disk storage options. The DD6 is available in single node, dual node independent, and dual node cluster options. Dual power and cooling are included in the chassis. Call-home and support functions are contained within the device, so there is no longer a need for a TSSC.

SSD boot drives (128 GB) in the rear of the nodes host each node’s operating system and the ProtecTIER licensed application. Hard disk drives (HDDs) (600 GB) are provided in the front of the chassis, in slot 0 for the lower node and slot 23 for the upper node, for ProtecTIER application logging. These logging drives also contain an image of the operating system from the SSD for recovery for use if the SSD must be replaced.

Front-end connectivity depends on whether the DD6 node is configured as a VTL or FSI node. When the node is configured as a VTL, the front-end card is a quad-port 8 Gb Emulex Fibre Channel card, and quad-port 1 GbE or dual-port 10 GbE cards are available for the FSI node configuration. When two FSI nodes are configured, both nodes must use same interface connection. Mixing 1 Gb with 10 Gb nodes is not supported. The back-end ports are four 8 Gb Fibre Channel ports for disk repository traffic.

It is possible to configure a dual-node DD6 as two independent nodes or as a cluster. One node that is configured as a VTL and one node that is configured as an FSI is an example of a mixed independent node configuration. In this mixed node configuration, the VTL node must always be in the lower slot. Two-node FSI and VTL/FSI configurations require separate repositories for each node because they are not clustered systems. An MES upgrade is available to create a clustered VTL by adding a second VTL node to an existing single VTL node.

The following MES upgrades are supported for the DD6 at ProtecTIER V3.4.1:

Server replacement of an existing ProtecTIER DD3, DD4, or DD5 model to the DD6 is possible through the RAS menu. Models DD4 and DD5 require an upgrade to ProtecTIER V3.4 before the replacement, and the replacement procedure for the DD3 model performs an upgrade automatically from ProtecTIER V3.3.x.

The TS7650G model DD6 front and rear views are shown in Figure 14-2 and Figure 14-3.

Figure 14-3 shows the rear view.

The customer chooses the disk controller and expansion units for use with the TS7650G. A list of compatible controllers and their expansion units is available at the following IBM Tape Systems Resource Library website:

Verify the compatibility in the TS7650G ISV and the interoperability matrix document that you find on the website.

The TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance Express is machine type 3959 SM2.

The IBM ProtecTIER Entry Edition software is loaded on the IBM TS7620 to create the TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance Express solution. A separate order for ProtecTIER Entry Edition is required. Clients can choose between the VTL configuration or the File System Interface (FSI), which supports Common Internet File System (CIFS) or NFS as a backup target.

The following levels of disk capacity can be ordered:

Upgrading from 6 TB to 12 TB requires only a license and a software upgrade. For the higher capacity configurations, disk expansion units also must be installed. The TS7620 hardware consists of the left and right slide rails, support tray, cable management assembly, external USB DVD drive, 3959 SM2 server, and any expansion units.

The TS7620 ProtecTIER Deduplication Appliance Express has system console functions that are included, and does not require a TSSC. The TS7620 is shown in Figure 14-4.

The following definitions apply to ProtecTIER technologies:

A process that transfers logical objects such as virtual cartridges from one ProtecTIER repository to another. The replication function allows ProtecTIER deployment to be distributed across sites. Each site has a single or clustered ProtecTIER environment.

Each ProtecTIER environment has at least one ProtecTIER server. The ProtecTIER server that is a part of the replication grid has dedicated replication ports. Replication ports are connected to the customer’s wide area network (WAN) and are configured on two subnets as default.

A set of repositories that share a common ID and can potentially transmit and receive logical objects through replication. A replication grid defines a set of ProtecTIER repositories and actions between them and is configured by using the ProtecTIER Replication Manager, which is a software component that is installed on a ProtecTIER server or a dedicated host.

The ProtecTIER Replication Manager should recognize all the members of the entire network the ProtecTIER Replication Manager handles on both replication subnets. The ProtecTIER Replication Manager is deployed separately from the ProtecTIER Manager on the client’s ProtecTIER server. The ProtecTIER Replication Manager manages the configuration of multiple replication grids in an organization.

An agent on every node in each ProtecTIER server interacts with the server and maintains a table of its grid members.

A number 0 - 63 that identifies a replication grid within an organization.

A repository that is a member in a replication grid.

A software component that is installed on a ProtecTIER server or a dedicated host. The ProtecTIER Replication Manager recognizes all the members of the entire network the ProtecTIER Replication Manager handles on both replication subnets. The ProtecTIER Replication Manager manages the configuration of multiple replication grids in an organization. An agent on every node in each ProtecTIER server interacts with the server and maintains a table of its grid members.

A replication and backup target. It receives replicated data from up to 12 spokes in a many-to-one replication system setup environment. In a many-to-many replication system setup environment, up to four hubs’ repositories can replicate to each other. In this case, the repositories are hub and spoke at the same time. In an OST mesh grid, the hub can be configured to replicate to another system and act as a source concurrently.

A backup source that can replicate only to a single hub in a many-to-one replication system setup environment. Spokes are not supported in a many-to-many replication group.

Two repositories within a replication grid that replicate from one to another.

A policy made up of rules that define a set of objects (for example, VTL cartridges) from a source repository to be replicated to a target repository.

A number that uniquely identifies the repository. The RID is created from the replication grid ID and the repository internal ID in the grid.

A scheduled time for replication to take place for all policies.

A container of VTL cartridges within a ProtecTIER repository. The ProtecTIER replication feature introduces the concept of a virtual shelf. Generally, replication always occurs from the source shelf to a destination shelf. As with physical tape shelves, there is a limit to the number of tapes that can be put on a virtual shelf. The limit is the result of subtracting the total number of tapes in all libraries from the total number of tapes that are supported in a single repository.

An automated process of the ProtecTIER replication feature that transfers the visibility of a cartridge from its master to its replica and vice versa. Just like a real physical tape, a virtual cartridge can be in or be visible only to the backup application in one location at a time. This process is carried out by the ProtecTIER replication by using the VTL Import/Export slots.

For more information about IBM ProtecTIER offerings, see the following product websites:

For more information about preferred practices for ProtecTIER offerings, see IBM ProtecTIER Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-8025.